


As You Are

by Huluppu



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Anna Karenina AU, Anthology, F/M, GingerRoseWeek2020, Gingerrose - Freeform, canonverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:01:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huluppu/pseuds/Huluppu
Summary: GingerRose Week Day 1 Coat/Glove : TroikaGingerRose Week Day 2 Fighter/Survivor : Anything Worth Living For?
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 15
Kudos: 19
Collections: GingerRoseWeek2020





	1. GingerRose Week Day 1 Coat/Glove : Troika

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a part of an idea that I've been kicking around since seeing the 2012 version of Anna Karenina a few weeks ago.
> 
> Armitage Hux returns with his bride, Rose Tico, to his country estate. Anna Karenina AU
> 
> Title is from Tolstoy -- "When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be."

He tucked the fur blankets in a bit more, but Rose had already fallen fast asleep. He had made a simple request and within minutes, she had set about fulfilling it. He bent down and placed a light kiss on the top of her head, smelling that sweet floral scent of her, and felt her hand clasp at his vest just a little bit tighter, murmuring something soft and unintelligible in her sleep. He felt a sense of peace within her presence, a warmth in his heart that grew more with each passing day. He still felt a bit wary when he felt this emotion rise up, afraid that she might regard him at some moment and tell him that this was all a mistake and that her affections for him were no longer there. But that fear was fading also with each affectionate look, each warm smile, each reassuring and loving touch she gave him. He listened to the slow rhythmic jingle of the horses bell, how they had seemed to match his wife’s soft breath. He curled into her, lulled by that rhythm and after a few minutes, allowed himself to be pulled into a dreamless sleep. 

  
  
  


Earlier ~~~

She was so cold by the time they had settled into the troika that he immediately took off his great coat and bundled her up in it before heaping the blankets over them. She had joked through chattering teeth that she had spent too long vacationing in Ajan Koss and it had thinned her blood to the Russian winter. She curled her body into his as the sled pulled away from the station.

“The journey was long and I’m afraid you’ve overtaxed yourself, love,” he whispered into her hair as she snuggled into the crook of his neck.

“Nonsense,” she replied. He bit back a smile as she stifled back a yawn. “I merely lost track of time going over the schematics in the book the Princess sent me. I may be able to build a combine for the fields after all, Armitage.” She gave him one of her radiant smiles. “Just think of it! We’ll be able to triple the productivity in half the time!”

He frowned slightly. “I think the land has been quite productive under my oversight…”

She simply gave him a wide smile, staring unabashedly at his lips before looking up at him. For all the bite of the night air, he could not feel it over the burning of his cheeks. She pulled closer to him still, her nose only an inch from his, her breath caressing his cheek. “Oh, I know, love, you’ve been quite productive. This will just leave you -” her hand slid over his knee under the blankets, fingertips coming to rest on the inside of his thigh, giving it a light squeeze. “Time for other pursuits.”

He glanced up at the driver, who was utterly oblivious to what was going on before looking back at her. “Oh? Did you have something particular in mind?” he asked before brushing her lips with his.

After a few moments, she pulled back slightly, her eyes darker than any midwinter night sky. “Hmm, I think I can think of several things in particular.” She shivered again. “But perhaps some place where it’s warmer.”

He chuckled and gave her an affectionate kiss, finishing it with a brush of his nose against hers. He tugged the lapels of the great coat upward to cover her chin and cheeks, seeing her eyes crinkle upward even with the smile on her lips now masked.

Her eyes closed as her nose brushed against the wool. She let out a scandalous but muted moan that suddenly had him contemplating breaking several rules of propriety. “Hmm, did I ever tell you how much I love the smell of your coat? Such lovely scents of wool, forest, leather -- and you…” The last two words seemed to be pulled from deep within her, more sobbed than spoken. Her eyes glittered brightly when she looked at him, tears threatening to spill. “When you wrapped me in this the first time after Princess Organa’s dinner party, I thought I could die of happiness.”

“And I would have been devastated to lose you just after I found you again,” he said. He had meant it in jest, but his voice could not keep out the undercurrent of irritation of all those long months separated from her. He knew she needed the time, but still the rejection had  _ hurt _ .

He saw the flash of annoyance in her eyes, her pride wounded, as she reached out and gave his side a quick pinch of admonishment. He couldn’t help the smirk that came across his lips. There were few things about his wife that he loved better than her fiery temper, even if it was occasionally aimed at him.

“I wished I’d never stepped out on the dance floor with Count Solo last spring,” she began. “Had I know how you felt --”

He winced. While there were a few things he enjoyed her begging for, forgiveness was absolutely not one of them. “You know, a very beautiful woman told me not too long ago that our past does not define us, that it did not define me for her.” 

The corners of her eyes crinkled upward again in a smile, but her eyes were still watery. He stared into them for a long moment, finding the solace and the love no other had afforded him before, only a caress, a kiss, an affectionate word, a loving look away. He ran the pad of his thumb just under her lashes as her tears spilled over.

“I feel the same way about her. Her past does not define her. Not for me. She said the noblest act one could achieve was not to destroy what we hate, but to save what we love. I want to spend the rest of my life showing her I can be a noble man, if only just for her.”

She reached up, lacing her fingers through his hair, and pulled him down into a loving and passionate kiss, making him for a time forget that there was anything else in the universe besides her. Until the sled hit a rut, jostling them so that she unwittingly nipped his lower lip and he pulled back in surprise. She gave him an embarrassed grin as he bundled her back up in the great coat and tucked her under his chin. His hand began to rub the length of her back in long, slow circles and he felt her relax into his side.

“It will be a while still before we arrive home, love,” he whispered against her temple. “Rest and regain your energy.” A devilish grin twisted his lips before he added, “You will need every last ounce of it for playtime later.”


	2. Day 2 Fighter/Survivor: Anything Worth Living For?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 Fighter/Survivor: Anything Worth Living For?
> 
> "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." Wilhelm Stekel

There had been so much smoke, it was hard to tell if he had taken them all out. It took a few moments of him peering into the hanger from their hiding spot before it cleared to a haze. 

Four stormtroopers laid on the ground. Quickly, he calculated the last one’s approach and spun around, but the trigger had already been pulled, the blaster bolt screaming through the air. He flinched, fully expecting a beam of red plasma to be the last thing he ever saw. It was alright, he had fought the good fight at last, and as long as the others made it to safety --

But then his brain was registering a twist and flash of teal before him, briefly illuminated before crumpling. He did not waste the advantage given him, already calculating the kill shot as he came up from his crouch, before Rose fell to her knees. His body went numb as she slumped down and he would be lying if he said everything didn’t suddenly fade to grey. He slid across the floor, grabbing the medkit with one hand and putting another blaster bolt directly into the skull of the fallen trooper from the gun in the other. 

Armitage Hux was angry and terrified in a way he hadn’t been in a long time, not since Snoke, perhaps even his father, had died. He pulled a blade from its home inside the sleeve of his coat and furiously ripped away the cloth from the area of her wound.

“Stupid, stupid! What possessed you to do such a stupid thing? I’m wearing armour!” She was ashen and her breathing came in quick labored pants. He grabbed the handful of bacta tubes, not bothering with the caps, merely slicing the lot of them open with the knife and squirting them en masse over and in the wound. Dameron was driving up to him in a load lifter, sliding out to help. But Hux was already on his feet, pulling her up in his arms, wedging her behind the seat. Hux ignored the invective that tumbled from the other man’s lips as he jumped onto the back just as Hux engaged the drive. 

“Did…,” Rose gasped out. Hux glanced over his shoulder at her. Tears streamed down her face and she had a white knuckled grip on the back cushion. “Anyone ever tell you --” She wheezed, unable to say the word, lips forming the word ‘bed’.

“Hang in there, Rose,” Dameron told her. “He can have the shittiest bedside manner in the history of the galaxy right now. If he just saved your life, I don’t care.” 

Rose just gave Hux a delirious smile when he glanced back at her again a few moments later. Weakly, she pointed a finger to her head and wheezed, “No armour here.”

He whirled his head forward again, grinding his teeth together Stars, this woman! She was likely  _ dying _ and she wanted to have an argument with him? His leather gloves creaked as he gripped the steering wheel harder. She was brilliant in so many things, but her timing could be -- now being a perfect example -- downright atrocious! “Damn it, Tico!” He slammed to a stop before the stolen Imperial shuttle. The heavy footfalls of what he suspected was an entire platoon of stormtroopers thundered in the corridor at the end of the hanger. He gathered her into his arms and ran up the ramp as Poe brought up the rear. 

“Punch it, Snap!” Poe leapt into the pilot’s seat and the shuttle lurched into the air as Hux deposited Rose into a row of seats. 

He braced against her to keep her from falling off. Within moments, they had escaped the hanger and the stars turned to streaks of light. He took a deep breath before pulling away and looking down at her. He simply didn’t understand why she had gotten it into her head that he was someone worth saving. Yes, he was a survivor, a fighter, he fought in order to survive. He had no champion save himself. 

Then in came this girl, this brilliant woman, who challenged him, who decided that the galaxy should give him another chance, despite everything he had done. When he had raged that Ren was destroying everything that he’d worked for, that he would rather die and take the First Order with him than watch Ren deform it into some abomination, she merely nodded her head and told him, “So, you have something dying for…”

“Yes!” His shout reverberated off the walls of the workshop, but she did not look up from the coil she was restoring for several long moments. When she did raise her eyes to him, her look pierced through him.

“So, you have something worth dying for.” She shrugged a shoulder, unimpressed. “Well, that’s just great.” She shrugged again. “Anyone can have something worth dying for. Do you have anything worth living for? Anything that you’d stay alive for, no matter what it may cost you?” She asked, standing up, walking up to him. He felt his back go rigid, his hands reflexively clasping behind him as he peered down at her. 

When he didn’t answer her, she shook her head and moved past him. “You really ought to rethink your priorities.”

He thought about what she had said. Usually in the most inopportune moments. When he was calculating the stress variables for new shielding on a Dreadnought Heavy Cruiser, looking up to find her biting her lip, lost in thought, as she ran tests for a more efficient propulsion system on fighters that looked like they were held together with nothing more than wire and chewstim. When he got frustrated at said relics and hearing her laugh when he glibly said that they were old when the Architects were first leaving their mark upon the Galaxy. Or seeing the fury of her eyes when she asked him if he had anything worth living for as his last coherent thought on the nights when sleep did actually grace him.

He also thought she was a bit hypocritical with those words, when they went on missions. She would place herself in harm’s way for FN-2187, or worse, Dameron, a man whom he suspected that if gods existed would be deliberately aiming to take out because the Resistance general was indeed that infuriating. Fortunately for those two idiots, they had Rose’s ingenuity and his meticulous planning to fall back on. She would infuriate him even more once they were all back onboard the shuttle, having barely escaped, and giving Hux a brilliant smile when he wanted to do nothing more than shoot the two men for their incompetence. 

This time, this mission, was supposed to be different. And it was. Because this time, fate aimed for him. 

And Rose had stepped in the way. Why? Why did she do that? She was smart. Brilliant. And he was just Armitage Hux, former First Order General, now just a traitor. Useless, less than dust. 

And yet...she had done that.

His mind and his heart warred with one another. His heart held a flicker of hope, insulated and cherished it as his mind railed against it. Hope was weak! He was weak! Why did she do that? It went against all logic!

She grabbed his hand, forcing him to look at her. Her breath still came out as small pants through gritted teeth. He glanced at her throat as she did so, seeing the air deviate to the left side, reaffirming his belief that the blast had damaged her right lung to the point of collapse.

“You’re worth it,” she wheezed. A cough wracked her and he turned her side as she spat out a small bright red clot of blood. 

That was...not good. That was definitely  _ not good _ . All of his survivor functions, his calculating, his meticulousness, but most of all, his ability to step through his emotions, like his rising panic, with patience, began to kick in. Many times the mechanisms worked well. A few times, they did not.

There was a sharp twinge in his stomach. This situation was quickly sliding into the latter category.

“Rose, stay. Stay with me,” he implored. Rose, not Lt. General, or even Tico. “Rose!”

Her grip on his hand did not loosen even as her eyes closed. By his calculations, they had ten minutes or less to make back to base before she would be beyond medical help.

“General Dameron,” he called out. “If you have any of those fancy flying skills that you like to brag about that would hasten our return, now would be the time to employ them.”

Dr. Kalonia had to pry Rose’s fingers loose when Hux set her down on the medbed. “We’ll take it from here,” she told him as a droid ushered him out of the room.

The doctor had found him slumped against the opposite wall when she emerged from the room an hour and a half later. He quickly snapped to attention in her presence.

“How is she, Doctor?”

Kalonia gave him a mirthless smile. “The blast seared her right lung. She’s in an induced coma for now, will be for the next few days. If there are no complications, she’ll be confined to a bed for the next couple of weeks when she’s not scheduled for the bacta tank.”

A ghost of a smile seemed to form over his features, quickly erased. “So...you...expect her to survive?”

She eyed the younger man for a moment. Whatever feeling he decided to keep from his face, he could not keep from his voice. It held a specific mixture of emotions she had grown all too familiar with, not wanting to get one’s hopes up, but having hope all the same. She reached out and gave him one small, gentle pat on the elbow as reassurance. “I will be honest with you. If she can make it through the next 24 hours without complications, her chances of survival will improve significantly. But Rose is a fighter, a survivor. I’d like to believe she’ll make it because of that spirit.”

“Can I see her?”

“For a few minutes right now and then tomorrow, you can start visiting her after she’s back from her treatment. People tend to heal faster when they know that, uh, someone, is present, talking to them, waiting for them to open their eyes.”

“Alright,” was his only reply. After a moment, she moved away. “Doctor!” he called after her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

  
  


He stood just inside the doors as they slid shut behind him. She was still so pale, so still on the bed, the medsuit covering her from almost head to toe. Only the quiet whirring sounds of the support systems broke the silence. He had seemed so certain about what to do when he walked through the doors, but as they shut, his courage seemed to be ebbing away. He gave a moment of serious thought to simply walking back out before he squared his shoulders back,

“I...I…” Spit it out, you bumbling idiot. “Thank you. I never had someone -- That’s not the way it was done in the Order. I --” He cleared his throat. Perhaps she couldn’t hear him after all and that was definitely for the best. “Thank you. But also -- why?” He bit his lip. He was making a damn fool out of himself. He straightened his shoulders, clasping his hands behind him.

“The doctor, ehm, Dr Kalonia said it would be good if you had visitors. So, you should expect me again after you’ve gotten a proper sleep cycle, Tico. Don’t think you can afford a few days off simply because you got shot. I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow and I’ll expect you to be ready to work.” He walked over to the bed, reaching down and clasping her hand for a moment before letting go. “Until tomorrow...Rose.”

*****

He saw Dameron the room out of the corner of his eye, but did not stop reading from the primer he held before him.

"A general derivation of the thrust equation...where m is the mass flow rate and m equals r times V times A, where r is density, V is velocity and A is area --"

Dameron squinted at the print on the cover. " My First Ion Engine" ? I thought you were trying to encourage her to wake up, Hugs, not put her to sleep permanently," he said with a scoff.

Hux ran a fingertip along the edge of the well-worn page, not deigning to look up at the other man while silently suppressing the urge to strangle him. When Hux finally did speak, he spoke slowly, as if to a toddler that had yet to recognize that there was an entire universe just outside their grasp of comprehension and that it didn't revolve around them.

"This is one of Miss Tico's favorite books. It was a gift from her parents on her seventh birthday. I thought it might be best to read to her from something that gave her many hours of pleasure pouring over its pages as a child." He bit his tongue on saying, "Unlike you droning on about those inane natterings you call 'adventures' to her for seemingly hours on end." He had not done well at "playing well with others" as Rose had advised him before she was injured, but he would at least attempt it now. 

Dameron, for his part, at least looked humbled by that revelation. "Ah, well, maybe that's for the best then. I was just coming to see her before heading out on a mission. Finn thinks he might have located another group of stormtroopers that overcame their conditioning, so…"

"I see," was all Hux replied. He was not in the mood to gloat over it, not right now.

He kept his eyes focused on the words before him until Dameron left a few minutes later, having said his hello and goodbye to Rose. Bristled a bit when the pilot called over his shoulder, "Take care of her, Hugs."

He was silent for another moment, making sure they were truly alone, before saying, "Dameron is certainly fond of stating the obvious, isn't he?"

He looked up at her face and swore a faint outline of a smile ghosted her pale lips. He returned to the reading selection with what he was sure was an utterly idiotic grin on his face, but since there was no one but Rose to witness it, he found he didn't really care.

"So, where were we? Ah, yes...A general derivation of the thrust equation shows that the amount of thrust generated depends on the mass flow through the engine and the exit velocity of the gas. Different propulsion systems generate thrust in slightly different ways…"

He reached out and placed his hand in hers, feeling, as he had for the past day or so, her fingers curl around his. It reassured him, especially since she seemed a bit more peaked today than she had in days previous. Dr Kalonia had said Rose seemed to be healing well when she spoke to him yesterday evening. Hux sighed as he brushed his thumb over the back of Rose’s hand, reassuring her that he was nearby and was rewarded with a gentle squeeze.

He spent the next few hours reading to her, adding his own comments and analyses here and there. Mainly to feel a reaction from her, even if it was a tighter, but still weak, grip of his hand as an expression of anger. Anything to get her to react. Anything to get her to come back.

*****

Rey stood there in the middle of the room, watching them sleep. Rose’s appearance seemed to be improved from when last she saw her. Rose’s eyes had opened when Rey had entered the room but Rey immediately realized her friend was not at all cognizant to know Rey was there, but still caught several levels deep within her own mind. Hux was slumped in his chair, a book propped in his lap and a small stack sat at his feet. His features reflected his current less guarded nature and she could feel the ripples of doubt and frustration that mingled with perseverance that ebbed and flowed from him. Even in slumber, Rey could sense him reaching out to help Rose, the gesture obvious in their clasped hands.

Rey started to smile, finding a sense of peace at the sight, but it quickly faded. There was something present in Rose. A darkness, no bigger than a few grains of sand bound together, but growing. Rey knew that she could connect to her friend, help her, heal her, but it would take some time. Time that she did not have. She had only come back to report with Finn to Leia about finding more Force sensitives before heading back out again. 

Rey mused for a moment, but she realized that Hux could help Rose far quicker and better than she. They were of like minds, would readily admit to such if pressed. 

Hux started to stir. Well, that settles it, she thought rather uneasily. One need not be a Force user to figure out what Hux thought about them. She quickly raised her hand and commanded his mind to settle, feeling his body relax back into slumber for a bit longer. She drew a tiny circle with her index finger. There was a connection that existed between the two that only needed an open door to complete. She sent a quick feeling of reassurance when she felt a flame of curiosity that was distinctly Rose rise up in her senses. She could sense Hux’s presense radiating toward her as well, knowing he would recognize her and what she was doing. She could sense the ripple of anger flowing toward, but hoped he would also recognize the end result justifying the means. 

When she stepped out of the room, Finn was approaching her. “Everything alright?” he asked. “I...sensed trouble.”

Rey gave the doors a quick backward glance before answering, “Hopefully, yes. I sent Rose the best help in the galaxy. If all goes well, he’ll never know that. There’d be no living with him if he figures that out.” She linked her arm with his, moving away from the room. “Come on, we needed to find Leia. By the way, how’s Poe?” She asked, biting back a laugh when Finn started to blush.

*****

He thought he sensed a presence, walked down a corridor and caught a glimpse of the scavenger girl in the distance. She stood before a set of doors, murmuring something to the occupant within he could not hear before glancing back at him and walking down another corridor, disappearing from his view. Anger rose up in him and he hurriedly walked to where she had stood, peering down the corridor she had escaped into. It led to the outside, but there was no one there.

“Stay out of my mind.” The command whispered out of his mouth, but reverberated down the hallway. Sensing no more of the scavenger -- for now -- he turned back and looked at the door she had stood before. The fixture felt both intimate and foreign. He stepped toward it, hesitantly resting his hand on its moulding. He breathed in a breath and let it out and the door beneath his hand seemed to move in time with him. A soft golden glow emanated from beneath and he sensed a familiar presence. He pushed the door open and was greeted by the sight of Rose, seated at her workbench, tinkering on what looked to be the oddest looking manifold he had ever seen. She had it disassembled into a few different pieces that were round but flat and the glow came from it. She looked up from her work, giving him a radiant smile and he felt a distinct pang of longing.

“Oh, hey! There you are! I heard you puttering around out there and was wondering when you were going to get in here to help me…” She gave the room a once over before looking back at him. “Not exactly sure where ‘here’ is but for…” She shrugged. “In between? It’s not such a bad place.”

He merely stared at her. There was a wave of emotions that rushed through him, so many things he wanted to tell him, that he missed her, that he lo--

Rose raised a brow and he could sense a ripple of irritation from her. “So, are you going to help me or not?”

That got him moving. He went over and sat by her side. She pressed against him as she handed him a spanner and he was comforted by the scents he had come to associate with her, Meiloorun fruit and engine oil.

“I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while now. Something in here is simply not working right. I go to test it, see if it’s working okay and it doesn’t even want to start up for me. I think I’ve built and taken this thing apart a good dozen times and it still doesn’t want to work. I’d scrap it, but I can’t seem to find any spare parts to build a new one. Kind of weird, don’t you think?” She looked up at him, hopeful, expectant. 

His hand twitched. The desire to touch her skin, her cheek beneath his palm, her lips beneath his own, was nearly overwhelming. His brain nearly short circuited when she slipped her hand in his hand, giving it a squeeze that he absolutely felt.

“So can you help me?” she asked again. There was a look in her eye that he hadn’t seen in sometime and certainly not directed at him. 

Trust. She trusted him. 

“Well,” he began, looking at the contraption as he started to slide his hand out of hers. She stopped him, clasping it tight.

“No!” And then softer. “Guide me. Please.”

The words caressed him, curling into his chest and kindling a small but steady warmth there. “Alright,” he whispered, shifting his hand so her palm rested on his. He slid their fingers along the choke housing, bending down to whisper in her ear, his lips brushing against its edge. “So, what do we know about the choke? Is the spring intact? Is it receiving a proper spark? Is the heat riser plugged or loose or missing?” He delighted in the feel of her shuddering within his grasp and filed that piece of information away to explore in depth for another time.

He watched as her brows furrowed together in thought. “No, this would be the third time I’ve checked it. Everything seems to be fine. See?” She turned her wrist, taking his hand in hers now and ran it over the housing. It was smooth, but… He pushed at it a bit. Spongy. Warm to the touch. And it moved, its structure rising and falling, the cycle beginning again after a span of moments, though feebly, like it was barely alive. What the hell kind of manifold was this? As he studied the contraption, he noticed an odd injector line, black and grimy, one might almost say diseased, clinging to the jet needle. What was that doing there? It traveled down into the jet itself and the way it clung --

“Rose, what is that?”

“Hmm? I’m not sure other than it’s an injector line and it’s in a weird place, but I haven’t been able to find its input and output to reroute it. Look, see how it bulges out just along the needle’s edge? I think it might be creating a vapor lock, but I can’t seem to find the kink creating it.” She smiled sheepishly. “I’ve usually gotten too tired out to find the source and end up falling asleep, but I thought maybe if you were with me, we might be able to find it.” She pointed to another set of doors toward the back of the shop. “I’m pretty sure it’s in a room somewhere down that corridor, but I haven’t been able to make it but a few meters into it before I get exhausted and have to turn around. I haven’t had much strength to travel much beyond this bench in the last couple of days, to be honest. Sometimes just walking over to the tool drawers wipes me out.”

A passage about the Architects from a book he read as a boy came to him. “Because it was beyond the comprehension of some of the more primitive races to truly grasp who and what they were, the Architects would find a familiar scenario in the person’s mind and merely encourage them to frame the encounters along those lines of familiarity in order for them to understand the scope of the situation at hand, It was not something that the Architects particularly had to hunt for within the subject. Once the suggestion was made, the rest was disseminated. It was apparently an inherent trait among all species, that when presented with the opportunity, the minds would shift to the known and familiar to unravel mysteries than to dive straight into the unknown.”

The known and the familiar. The workshop was known, mechanics of machines familiar. She had created a familiar scenario to fix a problem that was completely unknown to her, but needed to be fixed. And had done a rather extraordinary job so far of repairs. Given more time, she might be able to fix everything on her own, but given the state of the “injector line”, he was pretty sure time was not a luxury she would have on her side for much longer. It needed to be fixed now.

“It would be my pleasure to help you,“ he told her, standing and pulling her up against him. She wobbled on her feet for a moment and he wrapped an arm around her to give her some stability. 

She leaned into him. “Sorry, I tend to get like that when I stand up now. There was a while there where I was doing fine. Could have gotten from here to half way down the corridor before…” She waved her hand vaguely. “But it’s just been getting worse.” She looked up at him and gave him one of her radiant smiles. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she told him again.

“No need to apologize, love,” he told her as he maneuvered her over to the corridor. A chastising thought floated up, telling him he was being a simpering idiot, but the fear that something was truly wrong with her swiftly and thoroughly pushed the thought from his mind. 

She grabbed a glowlamp from a shelf as they walked through the doorway. “We’re going to need this.”

It was almost pitch black in the corridor. He figured partly because this was the best example that her mind could conjure of being in a void, a space between the manifold and the drive, the lung and the heart. There was a low thrum of a vibration that rolled under their feet in slightly faster than one second intervals. He marveled at just how strong and beautiful the sound was.

She held the glowlamp up. The walls were covered with a lacework of red threading and every few seconds a current of air brushed past them, gently popping the doorway to the workroom wide, the light from it spilling out, before falling shut again. They had walked several meters into the corridor before they found a section of lacework slowly meld together, clumping into a meter wide angry red black mass .

“Ah, well now. That would certainly be a problem, wouldn’t it?” Rose said, taking a step away from him to probe the blob with a finger.

A sudden sense of foreboding overcame him and he grabbed her hand. “I have a feeling that would be a very unwise decision. If it dislodged, there’s no accounting to the damage it could do.”

She tilted her head as she looked at it. “That is the weirdest plasma lock I’ve ever seen.”

He wanted to tell her he was pretty sure it was a blood clot but simply replied, “Indeed.” 

There were several ways to break a plasma lock, most involved rerouting the injector lines away from the manifold. Seeing the condition of said “injector lines” made moving them out of the question. Which left setting up a cooling system, installing subconduits -- obviously out of the question given the lack of time they were up against --

“We need to install an injection subprocessor,” she said.

He blinked. That could work. It could send a strong and sustained activating pulse through the “lock” to dismantle it from within. He looked over at her, unable to keep the surprise from his face and she laughed.

Stars! The speed at which she found a solution to a mechanical problem never ceased to amaze him. Especially when the mechanical problem wasn’t actually mechanical.

“You’re amazing, you know. You’re absolutely and utterly brilliant,” he told her.

She blushed, looking away for a moment, but then she turned back, dropping the glowlamp, clasped her hands over his shoulders, pushing herself up onto the tips of her toes.

He met her half way, pressing his lips to hers, pulling her into his arms. He swiped his tongue over her lips and she opened her mouth. She tasted as heavenly as he imagined. She raked her nails through his hair, against his scalp and it set a pulse of desire straight down his spine and into his cock. Then she moaned.

“Armitage…”

Only one thought saved him from picking her up, pressing her into the wall, and fucking her senseless.

If you don’t take care of the clot now, she may never wake up.

She whimpered when he pulled away. 

“I promise you, when you wake up, when you come to me, I will take you to bed and make love to you so long and so thoroughly, you’ll never wish to leave it again.” He pressed a kiss to her temple as a vow before stepping back. “But this matter, I think,” he said, scooping up the lamp and shining it on the dark mass, “isn’t going to wait.” He traced the pad of his thumb across her lips. “And when we’re finally together, I will not tolerate any interruptions.”

There was a distinct pulse in the air right after he said that, the breath curling over his body like one intimate and loving embrace, warm and tender, before moving past. When he looked down at her, she had laced her fingers with his, giving his hand a squeeze. “Alright, then,” she replied. “Let’s get this done.” She pushed up on her toes again, giving him a quick peck on the lips. “Because you have a promise you need to keep.”

“Promise me you’ll wake up,” he said on impulse, immediately regretting it. What a weak, needy thing to say!

“Oh, I already made that promise to you sometime ago. Long before I stepped in front of that blaster bolt.”

“What?!”

She merely smiled and tugged on his hand to return to the workshop. “Come on, I’ve got everything we need back on my bench.” She wobbled a bit and he immediately stepped forward to brace her.

“Rose, I don’t --”

She squeezed his hand again. “Ask me again when I’m awake.”

He wasn’t sure how long it took them to install the subprocessor. Time seemed to be such an odd concept here that his senses became somewhat blind to it. But as they stood back, watching the unit as it went through its many cycles, a change came over Rose. The pallor in her cheeks gave way to rosiness and she took a deep breath in. The living lacework of the walls pulsed with her breath and glowed as a strong breeze whipped down the corridor, buffeting them as it passed. The workshop doors burst open and a radiant light spilled from it, illuminating the hallway brighter than a nova before everything faded to a golden glow.

“Stars! That felt good! I feel like I could tackle a bantha..” She stood there, eyes closed, face tilted upward, reveling in it.

She was exquisite and he set to memorizing her face, the way the light illuminated her, the way her lashes fluttered above the apples of her cheeks, and the sweet curl of her smile. If there was only one memory he was able to take away from this, he wanted it to be this moment. 

With another deep sigh, she opened her eyes, then her hand in invitation, pulling him toward her when he clasped it. “I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to be able to do that again.” She reached up and gave him a kiss that reflected the longing he had and in recognizing it, he sighed, deepening the kiss, mapping the contours of her mouth in his mind all the while silently vowing to never let her go again. 

But eventually she pulled back, resting her forehead against his. “You're going to need to go,” she said at last. “You can’t stay here.” She let out a half chuckle, half sob. “I don’t want to stay here. I want to wake up and come back to you. If you want me.”

“Rose Tico,” he whispered, “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted something more.”

*****

He studied his reflection on a nearby panel before he entered the room, sliding a couple of errant locks up and off of his forehead, thinking he’d give away his last credit if he could just get his hands on a jar of pomade. Not that Rose seemed to mind, but still it grated him to not have at least his hair in check when he presented himself to her. Finally satisfied, he tucked the book he found for her under his arm and squared his shoulders back before entering the room. 

A droid was helping her back into bed as Dr Kalonia looked on. Rose’s face lit up when she saw him. “Hi, Ar --” she began her greeting, then gave the doctor a quick glance before amending to “Hi! Come on in. I was just getting settled.”

“I’ll be just down the hallway if you need anything, Rose,” Dr Kalonia said as she walked toward the door, stopping before Hux on her way out. “It’s a nice day out and she’ll need to exercise later, you might want to take her on a stroll along the southern perimeter. There are some Malreaux violets growing the pathway there that I think she would enjoy seeing.”

“Yes, thank you, Doctor.”

“Yep.”

He settled on the edge of the bed once they were alone, setting the book down between them.

“I took the liberty of getting you a present.”

“Basic Manual of Standards and Calculations for Engineers? Stars, Armitage, where did you find this? I’ve only ever seen holomanuals of this.” She gently brushed her fingers over the binding, afraid that the book might fall apart under her hand before pulling back.

“It was mine. I found it in a market many years ago on Coreilla. Probably as old as The Architects.” He opened the cover, flipping through the introductory pages to the first chapter, his fingers caressing over the flimsi. “I want you to have it,” he said, giving her a soft smile.

“I...I…” She seemed to be at a loss for words, but then she reached out and clasped his hand. “Thank you, Armitage. I’ll...I’ll treasure this.”

“Well, it’s a beautiful work for a beautiful woman.”

She blushed and said, “Thank you again.” 

She hadn’t let go of his hand. Instead, she ran her thumb in small circles over the back of his hand, starting at it intently before giving it a light squeeze. She bit at her bottom lip like she did when she set about tackling a problem when it popped up. 

“Armitage, do you remember our dream?”

He looked at their clasped hands instead of her, irritation flickering in the back of his mind. Master Rey had entered his mind, even if it was briefly and only to connect with Rose. And while he realized that if it hadn’t been done, Rose may have never woken up, he was still angry. Damn Force users, he didn’t trust any of them, no matter how noble their intentions were. Told her as much when he woke after ‘the dream’.

Rey had merely given him an apologetic nod, not speaking. He had been grateful for that, at least. What could she possibly say to excuse it? He looked up to see Rose's expectant face. “Yes, I do, certain parts. How much do you remember?”

"Do you remember me saying I made a promise to wake up for you a long time ago? And to ask me about it…well, now, I suppose."

His brows knitted in confusion. "Yes, actually I do. What did you mean by that?"

"I think I started falling in love with you a couple of months after you first contacted us. I wasn't sure who you were at that point, though, I had guesses. And I was having a really hard time with it. Being someone in the upper echelons of the Order meant you initiated or were complicit in the death of billions and the suffering of so many more on top of that. You had to be a monster. You  _ were _ a monster." She paused, her lips pursed and eyes glittering. "But you weren't." She rubbed her hand over her face.

"Rose, you don't --"

"Yeah, I do. Everytime you contacted us, the information you passed on was so vital. It saved so many lives.” She shook her head. “Like you were atoning. I decided then that I was going to stay alive at all costs, if only to show our spy that they were right, life is precious.”

He scoffed. “Then you met me in person and I disabused you of the notion that my cause was so noble..”

She gave a wry chuckle of her. “No, not quite. But yeah, you tested it. But I kept watching you and began to realize we both wanted a lot of the same things, taking down the war profiteers, stamping out corruption, and even giving a voice to those who were usually unheard by the people in power, in both the Republic and the Empire. Your methods of going about it were just... rather --"

"-- fanatical --"

"-- Mynock shit crazy --"

He frowned and she looked chagrined. He then nodded. “That’s a fairer assessment, I have to admit.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He appreciated her honesty and never wanted her to feel reluctant in being so, even if it might upset him on occasion.

“But your methods changed,” she continued. “You changed. But your plans for what the galaxy could be always remained the same and those plans are noble, Armitage. You’re a fixer, a tinkerer like me, and I realized that’s really what you wanted to do with the galaxy. Fix it, if you could, into something so finely wrought, beautiful, and peaceful, it would stand for eons, even if you had to build it all alone, one datachip at a time. And I started to think, ‘I want to help build that galaxy with him, because I want to live in that galaxy. With him.’” She shook her head. “I’d fought and survived for so long, and I realized, I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to live. So I made myself a promise and I started living for that future. Not fighting. Not surviving.  _ Living _ .”

He looked up at her then. He felt an ember of emotion begin to glow in his chest, one that had disappointed him so many times before, but instead of stamping it out on instinct, he allowed it to sputter and flare.

“I want to build and live in that galaxy with you too, Rose.” He moved up to sit beside her, to where he could feel the warmth of her body against his. He reached up and cupped her upturned face in his hands. “It’s something worth living for...that future.” What an angelic face, he thought, his eyes roaming over it, finally coming to rest in her tender gaze. 

“I love you, Rose Tico,” he whispered as he bent down and kissed her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was aiming to do these prompts as sort of writing exercise vignettes, but this one took me on a much ( _much_ ) longer and windier path than I anticipated.
> 
> I'm still working on a couple of the other prompts and RL is currently keeping me busy, but I'm hoping to post them soon.
> 
> Thank you to everyone on the Gingerrose discord for all your help and inspiration! :-*

**Author's Note:**

> So, I realize that Hux is more amalgamation of Levin and Hux here (feistier, I think, than Levin, but softer than Hux). I hope you enjoyed the story and I hope to post a few more stories for the week, but they may take a bit longer.
> 
> And thanks to everyone on the Gingerrose discord for all the Gingerrose inspiration and love! :-*


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